Tag: economics

On Numerology

nivtric3 Comments

If you intend to give your critics a field day, base your argument on astrology or numerology, and they will have a good laugh. Numerology is about giving meaning to events using numbers. Numbers have no meaning except for the number itself, so numerology is nonsense. When you give meaning to numbers, you may find the occurrence of specific numbers meaningful. If your lucky number is twenty-six, and you happen to see that number, you might think it is your lucky day. Many of us are superstitious in some way or another. Some wear their lucky shirt when their favourite soccer team is playing. There are people who think that coincidences indicate that occult groups gather in secret societies like Skull and Bones to coordinate world events. Here is the proof, according to an anonymous online poster,

This year is the 192nd anniversary of the Skull and Bones Society. Matthew Perry died 14 days (2 weeks) after eclipse in October. Sonic (boom) = 192. Obama = 192. Leave the World Behind = 192. Eclipse = 192. Deer – 192. Matthew Perry’s birthday is August 19. 19 seen in Leave the World Behind. April 8th Chandler’s Birthday from Friends, played by Perry. Next Eclipse April 8th. March Twenty Five = 192. One Nine Two is 804 in English Gematria. That’s April 8th backwards, folks. Solar Eclipse is 804. At the very beginning of the movie, three 6s surround the bed. 666 There were 666 months between Chandler’s birthday and Matthew Perry’s death day. Julia Roberts played Chandler’s girlfriend on Friends for a very short time. They were also a couple in real life at the time. Matthew Perry died the same day Julia Roberts celebrated her birthday. At his funeral was a song played Don’t Give Up where the music video has an eclipse in it. Don’t give up – 133. Forty Eight – 133. Gematria for Moloch, Baal, and Mammon are all matched up with this movie.

Is it just me, or is this a collection of unrelated events cherry-picked to fit a meaningless scheme? If something remotely relates to Matthew Perry and adds up to 192, the poster added it to the list. And it supposedly proves that members of Skull and Bones are behind these events? That is why numerology attracts so much ridicule. But it is not that much different from what I am doing, seeing coincidences, including the occurrence of numbers, as evidence that there is a script. The connections I see could be meaningless to you.

These connections aren’t all entirely arbitrary, though. The ‘prophetic’ licence plate number AIII 118 of the car that drove Archduke Franz Ferdinand to his assassination raises the eyebrows of an editor at the Smithsonian Magazine, and many others as well, because the assassination triggered World War I. The licence plate appears to reference the Armistice of 11 November 1918, which ended the war. The more people see the same meaning, the less subjective it becomes. Instead, it becomes intersubjective, meaning that more people see the same meaning, but it might still be nonsense. The verses in the Jewish Bible that Christians believe prophesied the coming of Jesus are a collective imagination that over two billion Christians share. The Jews who know these scriptures better denounce them as crap. Yet the Jewish scriptures are a collection of writings dedicated to the worship of their imaginary deity, Yahweh. And Jesus did more to spread the worship of that deity than all the other Jewish prophets combined. And if we see meaning, it doesn’t mean someone made it happen. Meaningful coincidences can occur by chance. They aren’t necessarily evidence of an intelligent force directing events, unless they come in improbably large numbers or are part of improbably intricate schemes. Proving that is challenging.

So, what about the licence plate of Franz Ferdinand’s doom car referring to the end date of World War I? The end date of the war, 11 November (11-11), may be odd, but most wars didn’t end on 11 November, so there is nothing suspicious about it if you take this fact in isolation. The license plate number and the car’s role in starting the war, however, make the scheme more peculiar, thereby highlighting the date. The start and end of World War I are among the most significant events in history. They are in an entirely different league than the 192nd anniversary of the Skull and Bones Society and the supposedly related events involving Matthew Perry. The combination of importance, meaningfulness and unlikelihood matters, even though we can’t pinpoint it, as there is no reliable way to calculate the odds.

Many people notice the time prompt 11:11 on clocks appearing over and over again. So what about the number eleven? Is it special? Numerologists claim eleven is a Master Number. Others believe 11:11 is a sign from angels. If you see it, the angels have a purpose for you, they claim. Well, angels, tell me more. Some explanations make more sense. Eleven is the first double-digit number, and double-digit numbers attract attention. You may see other numbers, but they don’t draw attention because they don’t stand out from the rest. And so it seems you see eleven more often than other numbers. It is selective remembrance. You can remember only the things you noticed. If you happen to notice the same number repeatedly until it seems improbable that it is a mere coincidence, it is either a selective remembrance or mind control.

Eleven is a pair of equal digits. Equal digits are an unusual occurrence that attracts attention like a remarkable coincidence. Coincidences can be pairs of similar events. That is why eleven represents coincidence to me. It is my interpretation. If you take this to the next level, you get 11:11. 11:11 thus represents a pair of related coincidences, such as the do-it-yourself store incident. Eleven is the fool’s number in the Netherlands and is associated with oddity. And so I think of 11:11 as the weird happening. That is my personal view, unless you share that view, either coincidentally or as a matter of fate. Quran verse 36:36 states that God created everything in pairs. 36:36 is like 11:11 as 36 = 6 * 6. A Muslim might say, ‘It is a miracle of the Quran.’

Natural Money website upload page 1
Natural Money website upload (1)

I became entangled in a few remarkable numerical coincidences as well. Take the following incident. I investigated eleven related coincidences and dedicated a webpage to them on the Natural Money website. I later removed it and focused the website on research on the financial system. The page had links to other websites about eleven and 11:11. After uploading it to the server, I noticed something odd had happened. The upload timestamp of the 11coincidencegallery.html file was 11:11. I didn’t intend for that to happen.

Natural Money website upload (2)
Natural Money website upload (2)

Even more remarkable was a discovery I made more than a year later, which was closely related. I was researching the coincidences surrounding the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. After uploading excerpts from Killtown’s 9/11 coincidences website (files 2001.html to 2006.html), I found out their upload time was 11 April 2011 at 9:11 AM. Also, the file 911.html, which contained my findings regarding the subject, has this timestamp. At the time, the 11coincidencegallery.html page had an upload date of 11 September 2010, which also happened to be 9/11. I didn’t make any effort to make this happen either. I discovered it seven months later. It is a pair of closely related coincidences. That is what 11:11 is about for me. If that happens to you, it might make you wonder.

An exercise often performed by numerologists is compressing numbers. It is adding up the digits of a number until you get a single digit. For example 1589 is 1 + 5 + 8 + 9 = 23. You then iterate this process until you get a single-digit number. 23 adds up to 2 + 3 = 5. And then you stop. There is one exception. You do not perform this on eleven, so 911 adds up to 11 as 9 + 1 + 1 = 11. You stop there. You do not go any further by doing 1 + 1 = 2. Why? Perhaps eleven is too beautiful a number to break down any further.

Perhaps you recall the fuss about the winter solstice of 21 December 2012. The world would end on that day, the Mayans allegedly predicted. The estimated time for the solstice was 11:11 GMT, while the digits of 21 December 2012 (21-12-2012) add up to 11 (2 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 0 + 1 + 2). That freaked out a few people, including me. What had happened to me made me think the End Times could be near. Nothing spectacular transpired on that date, perhaps also because the experts recalculated the exact time to be 11:12 GMT due to the Earth experiencing a delay in its planned trajectory. Coincidences might be signs, but you only know in hindsight, so trying to interpret suspected signs beforehand is pointless. Usually, nothing sensible comes out of that.

Coincidences involving numbers can be meaningful to us because we often attribute specific meanings to certain numbers. Once, I came upon the Dutch National Route 666 after leaving a village named Kwadendamme, which translates to ‘Evildam.’ Now, that is already quite peculiar. While getting on Route N666, I noticed a road sign to Borssele, the location of the only remaining Dutch nuclear power plant. The meaning we attach to 666 and Kwadendamme play into my feelings about nuclear energy. The only other Dutch nuclear power plant was in Dodewaard, which translates to ‘Death Holm,’ making it even more ominous. The former municipality of Dodewaard was 66.5 square kilometres in size, close enough to 66.6 to attract my attention.

But why was that size 0.1 square kilometre off? The N666 ends at ‘s-Heerenhoek, which means Corner of the Lord, a small village next to Borssele, so not Borssele itself, thus also slightly off. Furthermore, the N666 ending in ‘s-Heerenhoek adds an entirely different perspective to it, like that God is behind it all, including what we think of as evil. Is it just a coincidence, and do I see meaning that isn’t intentional? That depends on whether there is a script or not. So, was the Author of the script just sloppy when planning route N666 and sizing the Dodewaard municipality? Or did the Author do it on purpose to keep us wondering? Or am I just imagining that someone did this on purpose?

Weird things also happened in the stock markets. The S&P 500 hit a low of 666 on 6 March 2009 (date 6/3, while 666 is three sixes). The exact low was 666.79, so to be fair, that is closer to 667, but it is peculiar nonetheless. The FED stemmed the crisis by committing $7.77 trillion to rescue the financial system. Perhaps for that reason, IMF Chief Christine Lagarde made some frisky numerological comments on the Magic Seven in 2014 at the US National Press Club following the IMF’s annual review of the US economy.2

On 24 June 2016, the stock markets corrected after the results of the Brexit vote came out. In the United States, the Dow was down 610 points, the NASDAQ was down 202 points, and the S&P 500 was down 76 points, resulting in a total loss of 888 points.3 This happened exactly 7 years, 7 months, 7 weeks and 7 days after the Dow crashed 777.7 points at the height of the financial crisis on 29 September 2008.4 It didn’t take long before people on the Internet picked up Lagarde’s remarks about the Magic Seven.

A widely used method in numerology is to translate letters into numbers using the following scheme: A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, D = 4, and so on. In this way, the letters AD represent the number 14. Similarly, A5 represents 15. Something will fit some scheme most of the time. You can cherry-pick events and argue that they are part of a scheme proving members of Skull and Bones are behind it. That is why numerology attracts mockery. Probability, meaning, and significance are difficult to gauge, so critics urge us to refrain from making such evaluations. Still, peculiar numerical coincidences happen, and some stretch the imagination to the point that you might ask yourself, ‘Is this really just a coincidence?’

Latest revision: 12 August 2025

Featured image: 11:11 on a clock

1. Report: Fed Committed $7.77 Trillion to Rescue Banks. Eyder Peralta. NPR (2011). [link]
2. How One Speech Ignited A Ridiculous Conspiracy Theory About The Occult Allegiances Of IMF Chief Christine Lagarde. Peter Farquhar. Business Insider (2014). [link]
3. Crazy Day For Dow, S&P 500 And NASDAQ. Robert H. Anderson. Investing.com (2016). [link]
4. Dow Falls 777 as Market Reels From House Vote. Cindy Perman. CNBC (2008). [link]

Witbreuksweg dormitory

Meaningful Coincidences

nivtric14 Comments

On 15 July 2011, two television towers in the Netherlands caught fire. One collapsed spectacularly. There had never been a fire in a television tower in the Netherlands. These television towers had been there for over fifty years. And there were only twenty-four of them. A few people speculated about these incidents having a common cause.1 The towers are in different areas, making a common cause unlikely unless there is intent. After all, what is the chance of two aeroplanes crashing into both towers of the World Trade Center in New York on the same day? Only there was no evidence suggesting intent or a common cause. That makes it very mysterious.

Consider this coincidence from Bermuda, which is near the mysterious Bermuda Triangle. In 1975, a 17-year-old boy had a deadly accident while riding his moped. He died exactly a year after his 17-year-old brother died in an accident while riding the same moped in the same intersection and collided with the same taxi with the same driver, carrying the same passenger. Repeating patterns may have contributed to the incident. Perhaps it was a dangerous point where accidents frequently occurred. The passenger may have visited Bermuda once a year and taken a taxi from the airport to the same destination each time.

In 1992, I was bicycling in Groningen, where I lived at the time. On the way, a car door suddenly opened just before me. I could barely avoid a collision. About ten minutes later, on the same trip, it happened again with another car on another road. Never before or after this trip had a car door opened in front of me, even though I had made bicycle trips nearly every day for several decades. It is odd. But what are the odds?

Those incidents might be random events. Many things happen all the time, so bizarre accidents occur by chance. It doesn’t require a Supreme Puppet Master to make them happen. It may be hard to calculate the probability of an event like two television towers catching fire in one country in one day, but it is very low. Only, the number of possible strange incidents is very high.

But how low and how high? That matters tremendously. If there are a million possible events, and the chance of one happening on any given day is one in a million, we should not be surprised when one does. On average, an event like that should happen every day. If it is one in a trillion, and such an event occurs quite frequently, we are on to something, because, on average, it should happen once every million days.

The number of possible strange coincidences is infinite, so it shouldn’t surprise us that simple coincidences, such as a car door opening in front of me twice on a single bicycle trip, happen from time to time. It is, however, odd that it happened twice on one trip and never on any other. Coincidences come in different types. The more intricate a coincidence is, the less likely it is to occur. Indeed, some complicated coincidences are far less likely to occur than two car doors opening on one bicycle trip.

The following falls in the latter category. Once, I entered a do-it-yourself store. There was a couch near the entrance. The price tag of € 389 caught my attention. As a student, I lived in dormitory 389 on the campus. Price tags often end with a nine, so there was nothing suspicious about it, I concluded. Strange things had happened, so I tried to convince myself that it was not unusual. I realised it would be far more curious to find a price tag of € 401, as I had also lived in building 401, and price tags rarely end in a 1.

A few seconds later, I ran into a pile of bags of potting soil. These bags had a conspicuous lettering ’40l’, indicating they contained 40 litres of potting soil. That was close enough to 401 to be intriguing. There were no other types of bags on the spot. Potting soil is available in 10, 20, 25, 40, and 50-litre sizes. Sacks of 40 litres also come with markings such as ’40L’ and ’40 litres’. Hence, the ’40l’ was indeed remarkable.

Two years later, I returned to the same store. These bags of potting soil, marked ’40l’, stood conspicuously stacked near the entrance, reminding me of the previous incident. There was no couch, and I did not see a € 389 price tag there. I contemplated this while fetching the item I planned to buy. Its price tag was €3.89, and I had gone to the store to purchase that one item.

That is far less likely to happen than two car doors opening before me on the same bicycle trip. The events interacted with my thoughts, and the sequel made it even more improbable. The car doors opening could be a coincidence, but the do-it-yourself store incident should boggle the mind, provided one is allowed to think. In one of those dormitories, I met a most peculiar Lady. Since then, a series of noteworthy coincidences have transpired, reminding me of that. This coincidence thus also fits into this scheme, further heightening its peculiarity.

To make the coincidence happen, the bags of potting soil had to be in place, so I would run into them just after thinking of 401. And later, I had to go there to buy an item for € 3.89. And it goes much further than that. The scheme encompasses the item having a price tag of € 3.89, and my having lived in dormitories 389 and 401. That is most peculiar indeed. So much can go wrong. Imagine the bags’ content being 50 litres, the lettering being different, or me visiting another do-it-yourself store or buying another item the second time, and the scheme would fall apart. Perhaps it is a mere coincidence, but it is less likely than two car doors opening in front of me during the same bicycle trip.

On the evening of 11 October 2025, my wife and I watched episode ‘Demon 79’ of the Netflix series Black Mirror. The story played in Great Britain in 1979. It turned out that the murder of two people by a psychotic shoe saleswoman, following orders of a demon disguised as Boney M band member Bobby Farrell, proved insufficient to ward off the apocalypse. The apocalypse proved to be a nuclear war. After watching it, I went to bed. The next morning, I first read the news headlines on the teletext page 101 of the Dutch public television, and found out that two people had died at age 79, actress Diane Keaton and singer Joost Nuissl. So, two people died, thus not enough to ward off nuclear war. Two days later, on 14 October 2025, a NATO exercise named Steadfast Noon began. It included dropping fake atomic bombs above the area where I live. ‘You can sleep peacefully,’ a NATO spokesman added.

Latest revision: 14 October 2025

Featured image: Number 381 dormitory. University Of Twente (2013). [copyright info]

1. Onderzoek: Hoe konden twee zendmasten vandaag in brand vliegen? Algemeen Dagblad (15-07-2011). [link]

Royal Steam Bleachery: Exterior Overview Complex With Halls

History’s Oddities

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Thomas Jefferson and John Adams


US Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were both involved in drafting the Declaration of Independence, signed on 4 July 1776. Hence, 4 July became Independence Day. Jefferson was Adam’s Vice President until he became President in 1800. They were the last surviving members of the revolutionaries. Both died on 4 July 1826, precisely fifty years after the Declaration of Independence.1 Independence Day is 4 July (4/7) as 4 + 7 = 11. This date occurring twice is similar to seeing an 11:11 time prompt.

Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler

Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler both conquered nearly all of Europe. There are several parallels between them. Both came to power through a coup that ended a period of instability. Napoleon and Hitler both turned Europe into a battlefield. They both ventured into Africa and faced defeat in Egypt. They both waged war on two fronts. Both attacked Russia while not having defeated Great Britain.

Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica, which was then an independent island but later became part of France. Napoleon became the leader of France. Hitler was born in Austria, an independent country that was later annexed by Germany. Hitler became the leader of Germany. On 9 November 1799, Napoleon came to power following a coup. Hitler was involved in a failed coup on 9 November 1923.

The Titanic


The supposedly unsinkable Titanic had sealable compartments. In 1912, it sank on its maiden voyage after having a close encounter with an iceberg. In 1898, Morgan Robertson wrote the novel Futility, describing the maiden voyage of a transatlantic luxury liner named the Titan. Although touted as unsinkable, it collided with an iceberg and sank, resulting in a significant loss of life. In the book, the month of the wreck was April, the same month the Titanic sank. The similarities are striking:

  • The ships had similar names.
  • Both were the largest crafts afloat and considered among humankind’s greatest achievements.
  • The sizes were roughly the same: the Titan counted 45,000 tons, and the Titanic was 46,000 tons.
  • Both ships were deemed unsinkable.
  • Both had a triple screw (propeller).
  • Both vessels had a shortage of lifeboats.
  • Both struck an iceberg: the Titan, moving at 25 knots, struck an iceberg on the starboard side on a night in April in the North Atlantic, 400 nautical miles from Newfoundland, while the Titanic, moving at 22½ knots, struck an iceberg on the starboard side on the night of 14 April 1912 in the North Atlantic, 400 nautical miles from Newfoundland.
  • Both ships sank with much loss of life.

Robertson’s apparent clairvoyance drew attention. He claimed the similarities were the result of his shipbuilding knowledge. That can explain the technical details but not the sinking or the similar names. And the story was to get a sequel.

In April 1935, the cargo vessel Titanian sailed in the North Atlantic. A sailor claimed he felt uncomfortable because the ship’s name was similar to that of the Titanic. For that reason, he sounded a warning. He claimed to have done this before an iceberg was in sight. He added that the vessel stopped just in front of an iceberg. According to reports, the Titanian had run into some damage during the voyage.2

One hundred years later, the luxurious Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia sank after hitting a rock. The accident occurred on Friday, 13 January 2012. The ship had thirteen decks. Some passengers claimed that the Titanic theme ‘My Heart Will Go On’ played in a restaurant when the accident happened.3 Shortly afterwards, on 27 February 2012, another cruise liner of the same parent company, the Costa Allegra, ran into trouble near Seychelles.4 This repetition within a short timeframe adds to the peculiarity of the scheme.

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand

On 28 June 1914, the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand in his car in Sarajevo. His act triggered World War I. World War I ended with the Armistice of 11 November 1918. 11 November is a peculiar date as it is 11-11. Several strange coincidences accompany the assassination. Franz Ferdinand had premonitions of an early death, and the assassination succeeded after a series of mishaps. But the most peculiar coincidence was the licence plate number A III 118 of the car that drove Franz Ferdinand to his appointment with destiny. It contains a possible reference to the Armistice of 11 November 1918 (11-11-18).5

The car in which Archduke Franz Ferdinand was killed
Gräf and Stift Double Phaeton ridden by Archduke Franz Ferdinand at the time of his assassination

D-Day

D-Day was on 6 June 1944 (6/6/44). That date has double digits, like 11 November (11-11). The Allies had selected 5 June 1944 for their invasion because of a full moon that night. They postponed it by one day due to the weather. There was no consensus among historians on the start date of World War II, whereas the Battle of Stalingrad lasted more than two months. Therefore, D-Day is considered the most important single day in World War II. D-Day means Decision Day. D is the fourth letter of the alphabet, so Decision Day (DD) can refer to (19)44, the year D-Day happened.

Normandy invaded England in 1066 AD, while D-Day occurred on 6 June, or 6/6. In the ensuing Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, King Harold II of England died while trying to repel the invasion. That happened a few days after his forces had killed King Harold III of Norway, who also had invaded England. On 14 October 1944, the German General Rommel committed suicide after having overseen the construction of the German coastal defences intended to repel the Allied invasion.

Roman de Rou is a chronicle written around 1170. It covers the history of the Dukes of Normandy. It mentions that Roger the Great de Montgomery commanded parts of the invading forces in 1066. Other sources don’t confirm this account.6 During the 1944 invasion, Bernard Montgomery commanded portions of the invading army. That is most peculiar indeed, and there is more.

On 11 March 2010, the founder of the Dutch political party D66, Hans van Mierlo, boldly went where billions have gone before, and passed away. The name D66 stands for Democrats 66 and refers to the year 1966 as the party was founded on 14 October 1966 by 44 people.7 The name can refer to D-Day, making the founding date and the number of people involved in establishing the party rather intriguing. D-Day was on 6-6-44, so D66 could mean D-Day 6-6. Van Mierlo died in 2010, 44 years after starting D66 and 66 years after D-Day. Van Mierlo had just married a few months before on 11 November 2009 (11-11-11 after compressing numbers), which might also raise some eyebrows.

The numbers 66 and 44, along with the date 14 October, repeatedly appear in this scheme. And 11-11 is part of it too. It was the day Hans van Mierlo got married. 11 November is the date of the Armistice that terminated World War I. And the Vikings founded Normandy in the year 911. This number is closely related to the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11. On 9 November 1989 (9/11 European notation), the Berlin Wall fell. On 11 September 2001 (9/11 American notation), the terrorist attacks took place.

The assassination of Martin Luther King was on 4 April 1968, one year after he spoke out against the Vietnam War on 4 April 1967. Both dates are 4 April (4/4). On 5 June 1968, in another high-profile political assassination in the United States, Senator Robert Kennedy crossed the path of a bullet. He died the next day, on 6 June (6/6). Both incidents happened in the United States in 1968 and point to the digits of D-Day (6/6/44). 6 June was also the release date of The Omen, the most ‘cursed’ film in history.

John F. Kennedy’s assassination

‘We’re heading into nut country today,’ said President John F. Kennedy to his wife on the morning of 22 November 1963. She had just seen an advertisement from the John Birch Society in the Dallas Morning News suggesting that he was a communist. The border of the advert was in the black of a funeral announcement. ‘But, Jackie, if somebody wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop it, so why worry about it?’8

A few hours later, somebody shot him from a window with a rifle. The assassination date, 22 November (22/11), consists of two multiples of eleven, which is somewhat unusual as is the date of D-Day and the date of the Armistice ending World War I. There are also parallels between John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln:

  • Both concerned themselves with Civil Rights.
  • Both did get a bullet in the back of their heads in the presence of their wives.
  • Lincoln was shot in the Ford Theatre, and Kennedy in a Ford Lincoln.
  • They were both murdered on a Friday.
  • In both cases, an assassin assassinated the assassin before he could face trial.
  • Lincoln’s election into Congress happened in 1846, and Kennedy’s in 1946.
  • Lincoln’s election to President occurred in 1860, and Kennedy’s in 1960.
  • Lincoln’s successor was Andrew Johnson, born in 1808, while Kennedy’s successor was Lyndon Johnson, born in 1908.9

Longer lists are circulating with some false claims. Sceptics have argued that these similarities are mere coincidences and that similar parallels exist between other US presidents. Wikipedia even labelled it an urban legend, although it is not, as it implies that the story is false. That both murders took place on a Friday is indeed unremarkable. But the murder of Lincoln taking place in the Ford Theatre and the assassination of Kennedy happening in a Ford Lincoln is noteworthy, as is the time difference of precisely one century that recurs three times. And there are links with other peculiar coincidences.

Kennedy’s brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was shot a few years later. He died in 1968 on 6 June (6/6), just after the murder of Martin Luther King on 4 April (4/4). That is odd, given the coincidences surrounding D-Day (6/6/44). His untimely passing is part of a series of premature deaths, accidents, and other calamities involving members of the Kennedy family called the Kennedy Curse.

The son of President Lincoln, Robert Todd Lincoln, also had his share of remarkable coincidences. A few months before John Wilkes Booth murdered his father, Edwin Booth, the brother of John Wilkes, saved him when he was travelling by train. During a stop, he stepped back on the crowded platform to let others pass, pressing his back against a stopped train. When the train began to move, Lincoln fell onto the tracks. Booth hauled him back onto the platform. The Booth family and the Lincoln family were not neighbours, which makes the incident even more remarkable. Robert Lincoln was in the vicinity when the murder of his father occurred. He was also present at the assassination of President Garfield in 1881 and the assassination of President McKinley in 1901.10

The Kennedy assassination takes part in a series of premature deaths in office of American presidents elected in years starting with a zero, called the Curse of Tippecanoe or Zero-Year Curse. From William Henry Harrison to John Kennedy, every President elected in a year ending in zero died in office. It ended with Ronald Reagan, elected in 1980, who survived an assassination attempt. First Lady Nancy Reagan reportedly had hired psychics and astrologers to protect her husband from the curse.11 George W. Bush, elected in 2000, also survived an assassination attempt. The curse seems to have lost its lustre. Even Joe Biden, who could have passed away at any time without raising any suspicion of something of a curse having an involvement, survived.

Houston, we have a problem

We associate the number 13 with bad luck. Bad luck haunted the voyage of Apollo 13. The launch was on 11 April 1970 at 13:13 CST from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The departure time combined with the mission number was a daring attempt to defy fate. Possibly, the people at NASA thought, ‘We are scientists and don’t believe in this superstitious nonsense.’ And bingo! Fate took vengeance. On 13 April,
note the date, an oxygen tank exploded. The event has enriched the annals of history with the famous quote, ‘Houston, we have a problem.’ Mission control aborted the lunar landing. The crew made it back alive.12

The fall of the Berlin Wall

The fall of the Berlin Wall was the pivotal event marking the end of the Soviet Empire and the Cold War. The dismantling of this wall began on 9 November 1989 (9/11 European notation). On 11 September 2001 (9/11 American notation), a terrorist attack was another pivotal event in the war on terror. It marked the end of the period of relative peace following the fall of the Soviet Empire. On 11 September 1989, thousands of East Germans began crossing the Austrian-Hungarian border to emigrate to West Germany. That eventually led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. This date, also being 11 September, is noteworthy.

The historian James P. O’Donnell unwittingly predicted the year the Berlin Wall would fall. In the German edition of Reader’s Digest, he wrote ten years before it happened, ‘Not long ago I dreamed of Berlin. The year was 1989. The wall was coming down. Along its hideous 165 kilometres, East and West Berliners were pouring out to dismantle it. […] Canny merchants were weaving through the happy crowd selling souvenir bricks.’13

That is not as remarkable as it seems at first glance. O’Donnell made his prediction in 1979. If you were thinking in 1979 about the Berlin Wall falling and were guessing when it might happen, 1989 is a year you could easily pick. The final year of a decade can be a moment to think of the next decade’s final year. A 1979 ABBA does the same in a song named Happy New Year. But then again, O’Donnell thought of it in 1979, which increased the likelihood of choosing 1989. He could have thought of it in many other years, but he just happened to think of it in 1979, which makes it somewhat fishy nonetheless.

There is another peculiar twist. O’Donnell became Newsweek Magazine’s German bureau chief in 1945. He came to Berlin on 4 July 1945 to investigate Hitler’s death and gather information about his wife, Eva Braun.5 Braun died at the age of 33, and Hitler died at the age of 56, while 33 + 56 = 89. Hitler was born in 1889. And the erection of the Berlin Wall was a consequence of Hitler’s defeat. And it fell in 1989. There is more to say about Eva Braun and 1989, which makes the coincidence part of a larger scheme.
That is, however, a separate story.

Latest revision: 23 July 2025

Featured image: NASA mission control celebrating the successful return of Apollo 13. NASA. Public Domain.

1. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die. History.com (2009).
2. Titanian – Echo of Titanic. Encyclopedia Titanica (2004).
3. Costa Concordia disaster. Wikipedia.
4. MS Costa Allegra. Wikipedia.
5. Curses! Archduke Franz Ferdinand and His Astounding Death Car. Mike Dash (2013). Smithsonian. [link]
6. Roger de Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury. Wikipedia. [link]
7. Hans van Mierlo. Wikipedia. [link]
8. Three surprising details from the JFK assassination – and why they matter. James L. Swanson (2013). The Globe And Mail.
9. Lincoln–Kennedy coincidences urban legend. Wikipedia.
10. Robert Todd Lincoln. Wikipedia.
11. Curse of Tippecanoe. Wikipedia.
12. Apollo 13. Wikipedia.
13. Reader’s Digest, Geman Edition, January 1979
14. James P. O’Donnell. Wikipedia. [link]

South Western langur (Semnopithecus hypoleucos) female, Kanha National Park, MP, India. Charles J. Sharp.

So There Must Be Something More

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It was December 2010, and the wind was blowing. My wife and I sat at the kitchen table. My wife was discussing her late mother and father. Her mother had outlived her father for more than three decades. When her father was still alive, her mother had once asked him to contact her as a spirit if he were to die first. My wife recalled her mother later saying he had never made himself noticed, ‘not even by stopping a clock.’

Just after my wife had finished speaking, a gust of wind blew a flower pot over the balcony, making a loud noise. It was windy that day, but the blow came out of nowhere. It was eerie. The next day, my wife noticed that both a clock and an alarm clock were back one hour. One was connected to the power grid, while the other ran on a battery. So, did her late father make himself noticed?

Perhaps you also experienced something you couldn’t explain, such as an incredible coincidence or a near-death experience. You are not the only one. Or maybe you know someone who did. You can’t reason it away. And so you believe there must be something more than this life in this world. That can be comforting. Perhaps there is a God, and maybe your life has a purpose.

And I’m gone with the wind like they were before
But I’m believing myself, I think there’s something more
There must be something more, I think there’s something more
Something more

Amy MacDonald, Footballer’s Wife

Why do people believe in an afterlife or God? Do they fear death? Do they hope their life has meaning? Would it be so bad if our existence had no reason? Is that worse than playing a part in the grand scheme of a Supreme Puppet Master? And eternal life? You could bore yourself to death. For a long time, I believed that I would die one day and that it would all be over by then. And that was comforting.

Let’s end this on a lighter note. In 2014, my wife, son, and I visited the Apenheul monkey zoo in Apeldoorn. We had been walking around watching monkeys for hours when a long-tailed monkey came down from a tree to sit near me. I could have touched its tail if I wanted to. And so I said to my wife jokingly, ‘Well, if I pull the tail, a bell will go off, saying ding-dong.’ Within a second, a loud ding-dong came from the speakers all over the zoo. An announcement followed. There had not been an announcement all day, nor did one follow later on. The monkey zoo is in Apeldoorn. That is noteworthy, as this name refers to the word ‘ape’. Indeed, there may be more about this universe than science can explain.

Latest revision: 16 July 2025

Featured image: South Western langur (Semnopithecus hypoleucos) female, Kanha National Park, MP, India. Charles J. Sharp. CC BY 4.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Wake Up Call

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It was the Autumn of 2008. The financial system was in jeopardy. It was a scary time. The world as we know it could have ended if the financial system had imploded. I had just discovered how to prevent financial crises by having negative interest rates and a maximum interest rate of zero. At the time, it seemed an epic find that could change the world forever. Interest charges on money and debts, or usury, are the underlying cause of financial crises. However, banning interest would require negative interest rates, which had been impossible to achieve. In the early 20th century, Silvio Gesell proposed charging a holding fee on currency, allowing interest rates to become negative when the supply and demand in the markets for money and capital would justify it.

During the 1930s, when the world was in the most dramatic economic crisis in recent history, several leading economists, including John Maynard Keynes and Irving Fisher, recognised the potential of a holding fee on currency to prevent economic crises. Still, they didn’t think of using it to create an interest-free financial system. Interest-free lending never took off because you don’t lend money interest-free if you can receive interest elsewhere. Lending interest-free must be attractive for lenders. But I figured out how it can work. If the currency’s value rises, borrowing at negative interest rates can be appealing. More evidence emerged a few years later when interest rates in Europe fell below zero for several consecutive years.

That was still years in the future at the time. A holding fee on currency and abolishing interest rates above zero could stabilise the financial system and end economic crises. That would limit lending to the safest borrowers, as there is no reward for taking risks in the form of interest. As lending creates money, it promotes inflation. And so, this money could be inflation-free or even lead to lower prices or deflation.

In the Austrian town of Wörgl, money with a holding fee had been a spectacular success until the central bank banned it. The money continued to circulate because the holders spent it to avoid paying the holding fee, so people didn’t need to borrow to keep the money circulating and keep the economy afloat. A similar kind of money had existed in ancient Egypt for over 1,000 years. Grain stored in granaries had been money there. This money came with a fee to cover the storage costs. The Biblical story about Joseph in Egypt claims that he introduced these granaries.

I named the fin Natural Money after The Natural Economic Order, Gesell’s book in which he presented the idea of the holding fee. Initially, I attempted to recruit a few people to work on the theory and promote it. Nothing came out of it. Most economists think negative interest rates are impossible. I realised that might be wrong, and even if I were right, who would believe me? It seemed pointless to go on, so I planned to give up.

My wife and I were not the only ones having this, it soon turned out. People have shared stories on the Internet about being haunted by time prompts such as 11:11. This peculiarity is often referred to as the 11-phenomenon or the 11:11-phenomenon. Eleven is the first double number, a noteworthy coincidence of digits, and 11:11 is like the same happening a second time, thus two related, strange coincidences, hence doubly strange. World War I ended on 11 November 1918. Franz Ferdinand’s car’s licence plate number refers to this particular date. But what does that signify? Could there be a connection? Or was there nothing to it, and was it just my imagination?

Our minds trick us in different ways, such as selective remembrance. Remarkable things we remember best. Maybe you have experienced a few strange incidents. They stick with your memory, but you may not remember thousands of mundane events that also transpired because there was nothing special about them. Often, I see a number, and within a second or so, I see the same number again somewhere else, usually on licence plates. But when I look for recurring numbers, I rarely see them. Perhaps repeating numbers triggers my brain. Recording them then becomes a conscious process, so for each remarkable combination, countless others remain unnoticed.

tin foil hat

My waking up at night and seeing these time prompts was something different. There were no exceptions. I didn’t see other time prompts. And my wife had the same at the same time. That was not my mind playing a trick on me. Something made me wake up and look at the clock at these times. Is it mind control? Is there a plan, and is Natural Money part of it? And is there a connection with the licence plate number of Franz Ferdinand’s car? Only large-scale mind control can make the assassination succeed, trigger a war, and end that war on that date, 11 November 1918. And so, mind control, it is. And your mind is also under control. But don’t worry. A tin foil hat won’t help you. Nothing will.

Usury, thus charging interest on money and debts, is an ancient question and a biblical issue. Things were about to get a lot stranger. The only sensible explanation I could eventually think of is that this world is not real, but a virtual reality created by an advanced humanoid civilisation for entertainment, and that we are actors in a play. And everything goes according to a plan, so Natural Money could be part of that plan. That, of course, I still do not know, but it is better to be safe than sorry. And so, I worked out a monetary theory for a usury-free financial system with negative interest rates.

Latest revision: 5 October 2025

Featured image: 11:11 time prompt.

Other images: Tin foil hat. Morton Devonshire (2007). Wikipedia. Public Domain.